About the React Handbook
You'll notice there's not much in-depth original content on this website. We mostly write a summary of a feature/library and then link off-site to the documentation for you to go and learn that technology in detail. There are two primary reasons for this:
- None of the core team have invested much time into producing high-quality technical content or tutorials
- We don't want to reinvent/rewrite the same great content others have created. We might as well leave the articles and videos to the good writers and content-makers. We'll keep a record of the excellent ones and tell you why they can help you on your journey.
TLDR: We like pointing people in the right direction.
| FAQ | Response |
|---|---|
| Why would I read this instead of the React documentation? | We definitely recommend starting with the Official React Documentation before coming here, as it helps to learn to "think in React" before you set off to build an app. If you've never built a web app before there are some starting points we can recommend, but this guide might be a little too advanced for you. |
| What is the goal of this guide? | Essentially, to be the go-to bookmark for engineers building React applications. To create a community around the concept of scalable, maintainable React code and how to achieve it. Then, document it (hence, this guide). |
| Will we ever author original content/tutorials or only ever link to others? | Maybe one day, but it's not on our agenda right now. |
| What was the initial need for this guide? | I (Eric Diviney) worked at a consulting company where we built web apps and products for enterprise companies. Not everyone was required to know React - but the nature of enterprise consulting meant there were always projects we needed to staff, and therefore we always had people learning React at different times. We also did not have a formal learning path for anyone to follow, so it wasn't an organized approach to education in a specific vertical (React). I made the first version of this guide to bring as many people as possible up to speed with modern web development practices. |
We recommend you bookmark this website
React is the most popular UI framework in the world now. According to various sources, one can reasonably conclude React is very likely to continue its growth trajectory in the near future (next five years) from these sources:
Why is React the most popular framework? Read the React Handbook creator's thoughts on that here.
The baggage that comes with being the most popular UI framework in the world - is that there is a ton of low-quality learning content on the internet.
How to consume this guide
You can start at the very beginning and read through every page from start to end - you'll undoubtedly pick up some ideas along the way.
The actual use case I envisioned for this website was as a bookmark for React developers.
We expect that most experienced React developers who visit our website will already know about many topics we cover. But when you need to implement a relatively common feature and don't know where to start, this is where you should start.
A message from the creator, Eric
We are far from the best group of React developers in the world (if that can even be quantified). Honestly, I might not even be the best front-end engineer for the company I work for (again, if that can be quantified). The stances I've taken on this site and the debates I encourage aren't meant to insult or look down on anyone or their work in the open-source community.
I simply wanted to find the best resources for building web applications with React and recommend them to my peers.
If you disagree with something on the website, I ask you to get involved. Let's create a space where React developers can be confident in their learning.
Read more about me and why I built this site.